Irene Xavier is a Malaysian women's rights activist. She is a prominent member of Friends of Women, Selangor - Persatuan Sahabat Wanita, Selangor (

PSWS The Tropical Cyclone Wind Signals (TCWS, or simply ''wind signals'' or ''signals''; Filipino: ''Mga Babala ng Bagyo'') are tropical cyclone alert levels issued by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administratio ...

), a women's rights

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

. She is also a key activist of

Suaram Suara Rakyat Malaysia, better known by its abbreviation SUARAM ( Malay for "Voice of the Malaysian People"), is a human rights organisation in Malaysia created in 1989 after Operation Lalang, when 106 opposition, unions, activist leaders were ...

, Malaysia's leading human rights organisation. Irene was one of the 106 people detained under the

Internal Security Act (Malaysia) The Internal Security Act 1960 (, abbreviated ISA) was a preventive detention law in force in Malaysia. The legislation was enacted after the Federation of Malaya gained independence from Britain in 1957. The ISA allows for detention without ...

in 1987 during

Operation Lalang Operation Lalang (, also called Ops Lalang and taken to mean "Operation Weeding") was a major crackdown undertaken by the Royal Malaysian Police from 27 October to 20 November 1987, ostensibly to prevent the occurrence of race riots in Malay ...

. As the Internal Security Act is often used to silence dissent, Irene was targeted because of her work as a women's rights activist. In the first 60 days of incommunicado detention, she claimed that she was beaten, humiliated and mentally abused.

External links

WAO: "My Experience with Police Violence as an ISA Detainee"

Malaysian activists Malaysian prisoners and detainees Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Malaysian human rights activists Malaysian women's rights activists Malaysian people of Indian descent {{Malaysia-bio-stub